Abstract: The Helen Farr Sloan Philadelphia Inquirer notebooks consist of
fourteen binders of Philadelphia-area news clippings broadly related to the subject
of art, encompassing the early years of John Sloan’s career in Philadelphia, and
include a separately-organized group of materials from the same period about the
Drexel family and publisher George W. Childs.

Processing

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair
Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please
contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, http://www.lib.udel.edu/cgi-bin/askspec.cgi

Biographical Note

Helen Farr Sloan (1911–2005) was the widow of celebrated American artist John
Sloan (1871–1951), one of the original members of The Eight and later the
Ashcan School of realist painters. Mrs. Sloan was herself an accomplished
artist, educator, art patron, and philanthropist who dedicated herself to
preserving her husband’s legacy after his death in 1951. For many years, she maintained his archives while collecting information and
sponsoring research projects related to her husband’s life and artistic career. She
provided documentary sources to many authors working on book projects about Sloan’s
life and artistic works, while writing prefaces for a number of publications and
even editing some works. Mrs. Sloan funded the Philadelphia Inquirer
notebooks project (which comprises this collection) to document the artistic context
for the early stages of her husband’s career.

John Sloan was born in Philadelphia in 1871, and attended Philadelphia Central High
School. In 1887, Sloan started working for a dealer of books and fine arts, where he
soon earned extra income by selling pen-and-ink drawings and gift cards. In 1892,
Sloan joined the art department of The Philadelphia Inquirer, where
he worked until 1895, mostly illustrating the Sunday edition of the paper. He
continued to provide occasional illustrations for The Inquirer Sunday
Magazine even after moving to another newspaper, Philadelphia
Press, and his illustrations also appeared in several magazines,
including Moods: A Journal Intime, where he became art editor in
1895. From 1892 to 1895, Sloan attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
where he encountered American artist Robert Henri, who would inspire him to abandon
illustration work to pursue painting as a career.

John Loughery. John Sloan, Painter and Rebel. New York: Henry
Holt and Company, 1995.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1805-2005: 200 Years of
Excellence. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
2005.

"Finding aid to the John Sloan Collection." Delaware Museum of Art.
http://www.delart.org (accessed September 26, 2008).

Scope and Content Note

The Helen Farr Sloan Philadelphia Inquirer notebooks consists
of fourteen binders of Philadelphia-area news clippings broadly related to
the subject of art. Materials date from 1886 to 1896, encompassing the early
years of John Sloan’s work in Philadelphia, and suggest that Mrs. Sloan
supported this project to collect biographical and historical context for
this period of her husband’s career. The collection includes photocopies of
art-related materials published in the following Philadelphia newspapers:
The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Evening
Call, The Evening Telegraph, The Evening
Bulletin, North American, The Philadelphia
Press, The Philadelphia Record, Public
Ledger, and The Times. The bulk of the articles
are from The Philadelphia Inquirer. The collection is
organized in chronological order and is divided into three series.

Series I. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1886–1896, contains the bulk of
the collection, including articles, notices, editorials, and advertisements about
art. Beginning in 1892, the year that John Sloan joined the art department of
The Philadelphia Inquirer, newspaper illustrations by John Sloan
and Everett Shinn were actively collected, and by 1895 the illustrations had become
the primary focus of the series, outnumbering actual articles and notices.

The majority of the materials in this series cover the activities of museums,
schools, clubs, and societies in and around Philadelphia. The leading institution in
terms of newspaper coverage is the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, or PAFA.
In many ways, PAFA was the hub of artistic culture in Philadelphia, as many of the
individuals featured in the articles of this series have, or had, ties to PAFA. In
particular, news about PAFA faculty, including such notable American artists as
Thomas Eakins, Thomas Hovenden, Thomas Anshutz, William Merritt Chase, Charles
Grafly, and Cecilia Beaux appeared frequently. For example, the controversy over
employing nude models in mixed gender art classes at PAFA that forced Thomas Eakins
to resign in 1886 generated numerous articles and editorials.

Exhibition coverage is another major component of the materials in this series.
Exhibitions at PAFA, especially the Academy’s annual exhibition, were treated as
major events. PAFA also hosted a number of significant exhibitions sponsored by
other organizations, such as the photography exhibitions of the Photographic Society
of Philadelphia, which began exhibiting at PAFA as early as 1886. Private
exhibitions received extensive coverage as well. Several important Philadelphia
galleries, including James S. Earle & Sons, Davis & Harvey, Haseltine
Galleries, and J. E. Caldwell, exhibited and sold works that ranged from those by
well-known Philadelphia artists to paintings direct from the Paris Salons. Reports
on the sale, donation, or bequest of private art collections appeared regularly,
such as the bequest to PAFA in 1892 of the important art collection of PAFA board
member Henry C. Gibson.

Educational activities, including curriculum, and student exhibitions were also
reported for a variety of art and design schools, including Franklin Industrial
Drawing School, the School of Industrial Arts, the Philadelphia School of Design for
Women, and the Drexel Institute. News about meetings, exhibitions, social
activities, and travels of a broad range of art-related clubs and societies also
appeared frequently. Among these are the Philadelphia Society of Artists, the Sketch
Club, the Art Club, the Quintet Club (extended coverage of the members’ European
travels), and the Philobiblon Club. Several organizations with a more specific focus
include the T Square Club (architecture), American Water Color Society (watercolor
painting), the Illustrators Club (illustration), and the Decorative Arts League.

The activities and money-raising efforts of Philadelphia public monument committees
like Fairmount Park Art Association and the Barnes Statue Association for monuments
ranging from Beethoven to Joan of Arc were followed closely in the papers. Military
monuments evoked special interest, particularly the numerous sculptural commissions
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1888, as did
Gettysburg’s Cyclorama, the panoramic painting of the Battle at Missionary
Ridge.

Architecture received relatively little coverage, except for a few notices about
building projects, like the University of Pennsylvania’s library and the new PAFA
building, both designed by Frank Furness. Also, coverage of international art,
artists and art events was sparse, except for expatriate American artists like James
McNeill Whistler, and major events like the construction and dedication of the
Statue of Liberty in 1889 and the building of the Eiffel Tower for the Paris
Exposition of 1893.

Series II. Other newspapers, 1886–1887, gathers materials from other sources, before
most of these papers became defunct or were absorbed by The Philadelphia
Inquirer. One newspaper, The Evening Call, offered
significantly more regional (eastern United States) and international art coverage
than The Philadelphia Inquirer, which was primarily
Philadelphia-centered. However, this lasted only briefly, and articles in the other
newspapers in this series conformed to the coverage presented in The
Philadelphia Inquirer.

Series III. Drexel family, 1886–1892, is a small, separately organized group of
articles and notices that trace the social and philanthropic activities of the
Drexels, a prominent Philadelphia banking family, and Philadelphia Public
Ledger publisher George Childs, close friend of Anthony J. Drexel. Most
of these clippings are devoted to the philanthropic efforts of these two men, who
together and individually supported numerous charitable, cultural, and educational
projects, like the creation of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry
(later Drexel University) in 1891, and the founding of a home for retired union
printers in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1892. The social life of the three Drexel
brothers (Francis, Anthony, and Joseph) and their spouses and children, was avidly
followed in the papers through short notices about dinners, parties, and trips
abroad, and long articles detailing weddings, deaths, funerals, bequests, and other
notable events, like the decision of Francis Drexel’s middle daughter Katharine Mary
(later Saint Katharine Drexel) to become a nun in 1889. The list of articles for
this series featured in the finding aid is not complete and additional articles
related to the Drexel family can be found among the Series III. materials.